The _________ hour of the week

I call 3/4 year old soccer the funniest hour of the week; Dan calls it the most frustrating. Tyler is not the star of the team by any means, and he has a hard time getting to the ball when the other 11 kids are on top of it. His lack of determination is what frustrates Dan. However, I find the games hilarious. These kids crack me up--running and kicking so far out of bounds that it really should be obvious; swarming the ball; the things they say. And of course my own child is one of the funniest. Last Saturday our game was at 8 am, so it was a little chilly. Tyler insisted on wearing the head band. But then, if you notice, he has taken it off when it was his turn to play goalie. Apparently he told his coach that he didn't need it when he was goalie because it was to help him run fast. Of course later in the game, he had it back on. I don't know that it really helped, but we will just keep practicing and enjoying our games.

More fall festivities

This year has been the year of perpetual Halloween. Two weeks ago we had this fun get together with some families in our neighborhood. The hosts made yummy soup, the rest of us added potluck, and then we carved pumpkins. It was so much fun.


We also attended another Halloween party last night, but I got no pics. It was fun and decorated all out. Loved it. We still have our Halloween party at preschool and Halloween night. See? Perpetual partying. Got to love it.

Halloween Costumes

So last night was our Ward Halloween Party, and we all dressed up.
Yes, Dan actually wore that to a church function. I think only one kid asked him what he was; I don't know what he told him. It was a fun night. Dan and I have never dressed up before, and we decided it was time.

Speaking of costumes, here are some oldies but goodies:

Here I am at two with my sister. I am the younger blonder one believe it or not.

Now at 4: (It's weird to think Tyler is the age I was in this picture)

And here is the whole gang in 1984, which makes me 8. I was a Cabbage Patch Kid. I had gotten one the year before for Christmas, and my mom made my costume. My doll has a matching one. Halloween is the only time my mom ever sewed. It is also the only time I am aware of that she swore too. Love ya mom! And did you catch that David my little bro is wearing the costume that I was wearing in the picture above? I think it got some good mileage over the years!

And those are all the pictures I could find from the past. That's it. I couldn't even tell you what else I dressed up as over the course of my childhood. All I remember is vaguely Trick-or-Treating down our street and not wanting to go to the house with the scary dogs. Ahh! What fond memories.

On this October morning...

I did two things that are noteworthy.

1. I voted in early voting. Yeah for me! By default, I have become quite engaged and knowledgeable this election cycle. You see, that is what happens when you are married to a man who checks Real Clear Politics more often than I check Google Reader. Of course I wanted to do my civic duty, but fearing the long lines I have faced in the past when I went to vote, I decided to try early voting. 25 minutes in and out. And, Harris County has those cool new electronic voting machines. I sure hope I cast my ballot right.

2. I made myself my first cup of hot chocolate this morning. Granted it's going to hit 80 degrees today, but my house was 68 when I woke up. Yeah for fall!

Fall Festival

A few weekends back we went to our neighborhood's fall festival. Here is my handsome guy in his costume. And a bonus that I didn't even realize until this? I will see him well on a dark Halloween night.

The fail blog

Anyone else read the fail blog? Since we use Washington Mutual, I thought this one was especially funny:

Story time

I'm sure you have seen different blogs that have a regular feature. You know, mouthwatering Monday or Friday Favorite. I had this brilliant idea. I thought it would be cool to share stories from my past, and I could even post it every Sunday, just so I could have Storytime Sunday. And then I thought to myself, do I really think, based on my past performance, that I would really post something so regularly?

So, instead I bring to you, not a regular series, but merely an on-going one. Stories from my past.

Last weekend at a neighborhood party we saw a little boy in a spica cast, and it totally reminded me of our experience. In fact it was 2 years ago, almost to the day, that Tyler got his cast off. Here you go:

Let me set the scenario. We found out in July that we would be moving to Houston. Dan moved down at the end of the month, and Tyler and I were going to move as soon as the house in Little Rock sold. One week we went to Houston to visit Dad, and after a week there, we drove home, arriving in Little Rock at about 8:00 at night on Friday, September 8, 2006. We brought in suitcases, got dinner, and got ready for bed. Tyler wanted to play one last game of hide and seek with me before bed, and I agreed. The next thing that happened changed our evening dramatically.

Tyler ran behind the couch to hide, and I didn't see exactly what happened, but he somehow tripped over or fell on a step stool. His leg immediately began to swell, and he was crying hysterically, unlike any cry I have ever heard. I knew we needed to go to the emergency room, and off we went. They quickly got us in (miracle!!), and the doctor could tell right away that he had a broken femur. The x-ray confirmed it. They sent us to Arkansas Children's Hospital where they had the capabilities to set it. By midnight, we were settled in a room, Tyler's leg in traction, waiting for our turn in the OR the next day. Dan arrived early afternoon, and they got Tyler in and out of surgery by 5:00

I had never heard of a spica cast, let alone had any idea how to care for it. The cast went from Tyler's chest, to his ankle on the broken leg and to his knee on the good leg. There was a stick between his legs and two holes, one to allow room for his chest and stomach to expand and the other known as the booty hole. They had to teach us how to keep the cast clean and how to keep him diapered. (So glad we hadn't done potty training yet.) We had to get a special seatbelt for him to use in the car since he now wouldn't fit in a car seat. We were even given instructions to watch his diet since he wouldn't be moving around much. Not to mention a visit from CPS, which we found out is required for a broken femur.

We went home the next day and now faced 6 weeks of caring for the cast. To be honest, it was some of the hardest 6 weeks of my life. Dan had to keep working in Houston, and so could only be with us occasionally. Grandma did come for 2 weeks and having her there made a huge difference. She cooked and cleaned and grocery shopped and got us out of the house. Tyler was quite a trooper. He could kind of sit up and would play on the couch. We watched a lot of television and movies. Near the end he actually taught himself to crawl a bit. And as hard as it was, we made it. At the end of the 6 weeks, we went back to the hospital for another x-ray and received the good news--it could come off. Except for taking a week to relearn walking, there have been no ill-effects from this adventure. Granted, we are supposed to keep an eye on him, and have had one follow up x-ray and will probably need another one when he is about 6-7. But we are sure grateful that our mishap was, in the grand scheme of things, quite minor.

And this my friends, is what a spica cast looks like:

Open wide. Wider.

So this morning I went to the dentist. Again.

See I have been to the dentist's office 10 times this year, and once to the endodontist. I have one more appointment still for this calendar year. Unless, as the dentist warned me today as I was having a crown prep (for the fifth time this year), "I don't think you need a root canal on that tooth, but if you start to feel pain or extreme sensitivity to temperature, let us know."

I mean they know me. The receptionist tells me hello by name. The assistant and I chat up her love life. They all know and remember Tyler (who has only been to the dentist's twice, and once to sit while I got a temporary crown recemented in).

The thing that really gets me is to stop and think of all the money I have given them over the course of the last year. If I wasn't paying dental bills, we could get the built-in entertainment set we want. Or new living room furniture. Or the PB bedroom set I like. Or hire a decorator to come in and paint, curtain, and accessorize our house. (Can you tell I want to do some home decorating?)

Oh well. So I don't get the living room I want. At least I have teeth that don't hurt.

Autumn in Texas

Oftentimes, when people find out I live in Texas, they ask how I like it. My answer is usually the same: It's a good place to live, except for the weather, and I miss my family. This answer is especially true in the fall. You see, the hellishly hot summer is to be expected. Yes, it's hot again, let's go to the pool. The winter, rather mild with a few too cold days. The spring, it's okay, just when you are ready for it to start warming up it does. But fall? Ugh. You'd like it to cool down, you hope it would cool down, in fact you might wake up one morning and go outside and feel mild and not too humid weather and you might actually think it is starting to cool down, but no. 86 degrees for the high again. You just don't know what you are going to get. Last Thanksgiving it was cold (almost down near freezing) while the year before we ate outside. Last Christmas was gorgeous--we went to the park to play. So you see, you just never know.

And the second part of my quip? Yeah, it too is especially true in the fall. Just when it is time to start all the holidays, I miss my family. No cousin halloween parties, no Temple Square at Christmas visits, no holiday get togethers. But this year, we are going to Utah for Thanksgiving, so we have that to look forward to. We haven't had Thanksgiving with my side of the family for 4 years. I am so looking forward to it.

And I'm trying to make up for the weather part too with some fall/Halloween decorating.

Here's my front porch:

This is my witch (who I have had for about 4 years now, and I still love her!)


I just got this new Halloween wreath. I had a beautiful wreath before made out of fall leaves, but last year this lovely Houston humidity got to it, and it actually started growing mold. But isn't this new one so fun?


And a few inside shots:


So, we will make the best of it while we wait for autumn to arrive in Texas.